congress
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Some Republican members of House Natural Resources Committee gather to attack ESA and EAJA- Congressional hearings are held in theory to help gather information to write legislation. Every standing committee of Congress has members of both parties in proportion to their numbers in the full House or Senate. Many congressional hearings are not attended by…
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League of Conservation Voters lists the top ten- The League of Conservation Voters has been ranking members of Congress on their conservation records for many years now. They have just released their ten worst — ” powerful and outspoken opponents of clean air, clean water, conservation and climate action.” Mike Simpson of Eastern Idaho (who…
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It’s not really about cutting federal expenditures by $60-billion- The argument over these particular budget cuts is not about reigning in big costs. It is almost entirely about eliminating or gutting entire programs, many of them very popular, without a hearing or even a separate vote on each (most of which they would lose). House…
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Senator Tester’s massive forest bill has been added to Senate omnibus appropriations bill- Every year the U.S. Congress’ procedure becomes more and more unglued. The reason for this is mostly partisan gridlock. So few freestanding bills (called regular order) are allowed by the opposition to pass or fail on a straight vote that extraordinary measures…
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Rancher senators move to amend Endangered Species Act- Although most of the grass roots activity against wolves has come from elk and deer hunters, it has always been the ranchers at the core of wolf hatred. The reason is that the large ranchers have always believed it is their right to govern the rest of…
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Lawsuits and congressional action are likely to void the gutting of section 7 of ESA- This has already been reported in the comments on one of the threads here; but for everyone this is what has happened. California filed suit to overturn the Bush/Kempthorne diminishment of section 7 consultation. Congress is right now moving to…